Eagles vs. Buccaneers Point Spread: NFL Wild Card Odds, Prediction
The Eagles are 2.5-point favourites to win on the NFL odds.
NFL Point Spread and Betting Analysis
Needless to say, the winner of Monday’s game will be at a disadvantage entering the Divisional Round on a short week, although the NFL certainly will not schedule the winner to play on Saturday that weekend (would be really unfair) but Sunday.
The defending NFC champion Eagles were 10-1 at one point this season and looked like they would get the conference’s top seed again but imploded down the stretch to not even win the NFC East – they are the conference’s No. 5 seed. Tampa Bay is the NFC South champion for a third straight season – Tom Brady won the first two – and the No. 4 seed.
If chalk holds on Wild Card Weekend, and it definitely does not every year, then this victor would go to top-seeded San Francisco in the Divisional Round. The Eagles visited Tampa on a Monday night in Week 3 and won 25-11 as Jalen Hurts threw for a score and rushed for one, but there was one piece of worrisome foreshadowing as well with Hurts turning the ball over twice. Bucs QB Baker Mayfield threw for just 146 yards with a TD and pick.
The teams last met in the playoffs following the 2020 season also in the Wild Card round and also in Tampa. Brady led the Bucs to a 31-15 win with two TD passes. Hurts had a TD pass and two picks.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles were somewhat half-in, half-out Sunday at the Giants because they still had a chance to win the NFC East but needed a win and an unlikely Dallas loss in Washington. So Philly coach Nick Sirianni played some starters and rested others. Unfortunately for him, star wideout AJ Brown injured his knee in the loss to New York and QB Jalen Hurts appeared to dislocate the middle finger on his throwing hand, but X-rays were negative. Sirianni eventually pulled his key guys but maybe too late. Both surely will play but probably not be near 100 per cent – Hurts’ deep throws might be most affected. Good-looking young safety Sidney Jones tore his ACL in the game. Philadelphia closed 1-5 in its final six (only the sixth team in history to make the playoffs after a 1-5 or worse finish) with the defence playing like one of the NFL’s worst after being one of its best last season on the way to winning the conference title. That unit finished 30th in scoring defence in allowing 25.2 points per game allowed. No team in NFL history allowed that high of an average during the regular season and won a Super Bowl.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Baker Mayfield one-year experiment worked so well in Tampa that the Bucs are expected to sign the former No. 1 overall pick to a longer-term extension. Not really any realistic better opportunities out there for either side. It was ugly, but Tampa Bay clinched the NFC South with a 9-0 win at NFL-worst Carolina on Sunday. Mayfield is very beaten up himself (ankle and ribs) and clearly laboured through that one in completing 20 of 32 for just 137 yards. The Bucs had just 228 yards of offence and probably will need to keep this lower-scoring to have a shot because they simply don’t have close to the offensive firepower the Eagles do. Mayfield did join Tom Brady (2022) as the only quarterbacks in franchise history to record a season with 4,000-plus passing yards, 25-plus passing touchdowns and 10-or-fewer interceptions. Winning the division title probably saved the job of Coach Todd Bowles, who had been on a minor hot seat. The Bucs’ +400 odds of reaching the playoffs were the third longest in the NFL entering the season.
PHI
TB